Wintry Village

Sparkles Christmas Challenge 184 has just gone live and Debs has chosen "Monochrome Winter Wishes" as our theme for July - how can we be half way through 2026?!!

Monochrome provided the perfect opportunity to break open this NBUS set of elegant townhouses (the Greetery Market Place Mini)!  As I write this we're in the middle of a heatwave so a wintry village (especially one as pretty as this) looks pretty inviting and reminds me that Winter will return and probably with a vengeance!

I wanted my houses to look a little like gingerbread houses so I cut them from Kraft for the house bodies and an off-white for the trimmings.  

There is a detail insert die and a background die for each house so I cut a plain house from Kraft, and another from vellum and then cut another Kraft house with the detail die .  To darken the colour of the houses and add a little depth, I used Gathered Twigs DI (they were cut from the same Kraft I used on the background and card base). 

To give the house "trimmings" a sandstone appearance I added Antique Linen DI.

The trees, wreaths and string of lights were "winked" so they would sparkle (though that's not obvious from the photo).  I'm still in two minds whether to cut them from copper so I might try making up another at a later date - it's too hot to think straight at the moment!  Ditto for the sentiment - obviously it needs a sentiment and "Let it Snow" is the obvious choice and I have a NBUS hot foil set just for this purpose but the thought of getting out the hot foil paraphernalia is not something I can even contemplate in this heat so I'll put that idea on "ice" for the moment!

The background was embossed with a snow embossing folder (no idea of the name of it sorry) and I went over the raised area with a white pigment ink - I also spattered some white acrylic over the scene so the houses would also have a little snowfall.

I hope you can find time to join us this month at the Sparkles Christmas Challenge and take some of the hassle out of November/December!

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges:

NBUS Challenge #88 - NBUS Houses;

The Outlawz July Christmas Challenge - Anything Christmas goes;

Merry Little Christmas Challenge #69 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Peace on Earth Challenge #114 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Alphabet Challenge Blog - E is for Embossing (wet or dry) and I used an Snowy Embossing Folder;

Little Red Wagon Challenge #865 - I See (vellum windows on my townhouses)'

Thank God It's Friday Challenge #583 - Pop it Up (dimensionals, layered die cuts etc.);

52 Christmas Card Throwdown June Technique Challenge - Use an Embossing Folder;

ABC Christmas Challenge - L is for "Let it Snow"!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and should be able to find you!

Kate 

Twisting by the Pool

Challenge #316 at Time Out has just gone live and this fortnight we have a

Photo Inspiration Challenge

Our lovely team member Carol shared this photo with us last Summer - here's a closer look!

Challenge 316 is being sponsored by Lawn Fawn and they are very kindly offering our top pick as chosen by the design team a $25 store credit!

The Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!

When I first saw this photo, the pitch of the roof reminded of this beach hut die (Mes Ptits Ciseaux Cabanes).  Obviously I was inspired by the navy and white striped cushion in the photo to make the beach hut up in navy and white pinstripe!  I used an old stamp to create a pin-striped background (WMS Pinstripe Mini - love the distressed look of this stamp)!

And how could I not be inspired by that pink striped towel - I found a scrap of patterned paper that was just big enough to cut a "towel" (Slimline Sentiments Blanket).

The loopy "aloha" sentiment (Lawn Fawn Scripty Aloha) fitted perfectly on the "towel" and was inspired by the painted toenails.  I went over the stacked sentiment with wink of Stella and then added glossy accents - love the sparkly effect of wink of Stella with the Glossy Accents!

I chose this background panel because it reminded me of the water in the pool and the surfboard by the beach hut door was inspired by the inflatable lilo in the pool.

Best of all, just about everything was cut from snippets so it cost me virtually nothing!

 

This photo really worked some magic on my flagging mojo, but if you're still stuck for ideas, you can see how my talented team mates were inspired by this photo over on the Time Out Blog!  I do hope you can take some Time Out and come play cards with us this fortnight!

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges

Snippets Playground Challenge #535 - loads of snippets used;

Inkspirational Challenge #370 - Leftovers;

Shopping Our Stash SOS#576 - Summertime;

Double D Challenge DD 6/26 - Tropical;

Fab'n'Funky Challenge #640 - Something Beginning with B (Beach Hut);

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!   Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Girls Just Want to Have Sun

 

Time Out Challenge #315 has just gone live and it's another Pick 2 Challenge!

The concept of a Pick 2 Challenge is simple - we give you 6 word prompts to choose from and you use at least 2 to inspire your creation!  To be clear, you can pick more than 2 if you like - all 6 if you really want a challenge but just make sure to pick at least 2!

The Word Prompts for this challenge are

Summer, Vacation, Camping, Water, Sun and Ice Cream

You can interpret these words any way you like but please explain if it isn't obvious and please remember we only allow a total of 5 challenges - ours plus 4 others!  I hope you enjoy our challenge and that you can take a little Time Out and join us for some fun!  

Challenge #315 is generously being sponsored by Newton's Nook and our Top Pick as chosen by the design team a $25 credit to their store!  

The Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!  Speaking of guest designers, our guest designer this fortnight is Sherri of Sherrisonline, our winner of Challenge #310!  Be sure to check out the Time Out Blog to see how how Sherri and my talented team mates were inspired by these six words!

Finally, I had a reason to pull out this Beach Bag die set (PTI)!  I raided my paper pads and found this pretty design which gave me ideas for colours and then I raided my snippets boxes for suitable bits to make the bag and everything it holds! 

As the bag is actually a gift card holder, I just popped all the beach items into the bag rather than gluing them down - I did make sure they were packed in tightly so they won't come adrift in the post (I hope)!

It seemed a shame to have them partially obscured and now the card is interactive and a little more special!

I especially loved the sunglasses - I cut the base layer from grey vellum so you could see through them to the little crossed temples behind - so cute!

In fact, I couldn't resist making a few more of this design (especially as I had 3 other sheets of this lovely paper)!

The sentiment "GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE SUN" is from the Poppystamps Whittle Sea Life Sentiments stamp set!

So I incorporated Sun, Summer and Water into my design!  How do our 6 words inspire you?  I can't wait to see your creations in the gallery!

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #87 - NBUS Beachbag;

Snippets Playground Challenge #534 - loads of snippets used;

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Add a Sentiment;

Four Seasons June Challenge- Anything Goes Summer;

Double D Challenges - Add a bow (there's a tiny bow on the hat);

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!   Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Jingle Belle

Sparkles Christmas Challenge 183 has just gone live and Debbie has chosen "Jingle Bells" as our theme for June - so if you include at least one bell, you're good!

I had big plans for this card - archway, brick embossing folder - but in the end there was no time so it's a simple bell (Poppystamps Nordic Bell) and sentiment (Sizzix Holiday Words Script By Tim Holtz)!  The bell does look pretty in pink though don't ya think!

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges:

NBUS Challenge #87 - NBUS Bell;

Peace on Earth Challenge #112 - Anything Christmas Goes;

ABC Christmas Challenge - "J" is for Just Enough (Clean and Simple); 

The Outlawz May Christmas Challenge - anything Christmas goes;

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and should be able to find you!

Kate 

A Special Toast

A new challenge has just gone live at Time Out Challenges and we would like to see how you are inspired by A Favourite Beverage!

 

Our lovely DT member Carol has donated this pretty handmade Wine Bag as a prize for Challenge #314!

The Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!  Speaking of guest designers, our guest designer this fortnight is the very talented Joanne of the Crafty Owl our winner from Challenge #309!   You can check out how Joanne and my talented team mates were inspired by their favourite beverage over on the Time Out Blog!

I was inspired by Champagne ... and this lovely set (Spellbinders A Special Toast) that I finally managed to get my hands on!  I made up a wedding card but I plan on making some birthday cards or graduation cards as well because I am totally swooning over those shoes!

I made the shoes by winking just the top layer of the shoe and adding glossy accents and I did the same thing with the hatband on the top hat.  

The top layer on the pink and purple roses were cut from glitter cardstock and glossy accents were added.  Both layers of the white rose were cut from white cardstock and the top layer was coated with glossy accents and sprinkled with ultra fine pink glitter while it was still wet. 

The sentiment (Sue Wilson Mini Shadowed  Congratulations) was cut twice from the same white as the background panel and then silver.  It looks a little like it's floating above the panel - I definitely like the effect and will do it again!

I hope you can take some Time Out and join us this fortnight.  You have until the June 10th to link up your entries ... can't wait to see how you're inspired by one of your favourite beverages!

TWOFER

As with most things in life, Champagne is even better in Pink so I've made up a graduation card with a pink and black shoe.  And  I remembered I had this old stamp (WMS Putting on the Ritz) which finished off the card nicely (I so miss Waltzing Mouse Stamps)!

THREEFER

...  And another with a shoe in black and pink!

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #86 - NBUS Spellbinders A Special Toast;

Die Cut Diva May Challenge - Celebrations is the theme this month !

Triple B May Challenge - Loads of Blooms in these cards!

Papercraft Challenges #130 - Botanical Beauty is the theme;

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes;

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Ain't You Grand!

 

Challenge #313 has just gone live at Time Out Challenges and this fortnight we have the theme

Playing Music 

Playing music could be playing a musical instrument or playing music on a turntable or cassette deck or walkman, or a pair of headphones or a CD - whatever playing music means to you!

Challenge #313 is generously being sponsored by Gina K and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design teams $25 credit to their store!  

The Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!  Speaking of guest designers, our guest designer this fortnight is Cindy Chui, one of our honourable mentions from Challenge #308!   You can check out how Cindy and my talented team mates have interpreted our Playing Music theme over on the Time Out Blog!

I had quite a few NBUS dies that I could have used for this theme but I decided on this Grand Piano die from Gummiapan and made a card for my choir director's birthday!

I snipped and stacked several die-cuts of the piano to give it dimension.  I winked it as well but it's not obvious from the photo. 

I had this lovely frame (Gummiapan) already cut and used it to showcase the grand piano.  I cut some quavers and semi-quavers to indicate music being played and coated them with Glossy Accents.

The sentiment (Spellbinders GLP-380 Must Have Sentiments) was foiled using black foil and mounted with foam tape.

The bouquet of yellow roses (Spellbinders Flower Cart) helped break up all that black and white - my choir director also loves flowers and her favourite colour is yellow!  I mounted the bouquet on double foam tape so it sat neatly on top of the piano - there's quite a lot of dimension to the piano!

Here's a closeup though it still doesn't show up the sparkle of the winking on the piano.

TWOFER :

Since I had the Flower Cart set out, I made up another card using the other bouquet from the Flower Cart set.  I added centres to these flowers with White Enamel Accents.

I hope you can take some Time Out and join us this fortnight for our Playing Music Theme - you have until the May 27th to link up your entries ... can't wait to see your creations in the gallery!

I and grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #86 - NBUS dies - Gummiapan Piano;

Inkspirational Challenge #367 - Inspired by the purple bouquet on the palette;

Triple B May Challenge - Just Blooms today;

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Use craft dies;

A Cut Above May Challenge - Anything Goes using Die Cuts;

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!   Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!   And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and should be able to find you!

Kate

All Wrapped Up

 Sparkles Christmas Challenge 183 has just gone live and Sue has chosen Gifts as our theme for May!

This die (Sizzix Gift 2) is an oldie but a goodie!  It's one of those old thick original Sizzix dies and it cuts just the one piece - gift + bow!  However, as I wanted the bow to really stand out against the present, I cut it once from patterned paper and twice more from red cardstock, then snipped away the gift part from the bow part on the red die cuts, stacked them and laid them over the patterned paper die cut.  Then I added some glossy accents so the bow would shine.

Sentiment is also an oldie but a goodie too - Waltzing Mouse Stamps Compliments of the Season.

I decorated the inside and the envelope with a stamped image of a wrapped gift (Love2Craft)!

Don't forget to check out all the great Gift Inspiration on the Sparkles Christmas Challenges Blog and I look forward to seeing your creations in the gallery!

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges:

MLCCB#68 - anything Christmas goes;

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - anything goes;

The Outlawz May Christmas Challenge - anything Christmas goes;

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate 

Sunset Collage

 Challenge #312 at Time Out has just gone live and this fortnight we have a

Photo Inspiration Challenge

Our lovely team member Deepti shared this photo with us of her trip to Durres Albania last Summer - here's a closer look!

Challenge 312 is being sponsored by Doodlebugs and they are very kindly offering our top pick as chosen by the design team a $25 store credit!

The Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge and speaking of guest designers, our guest designer this fortnight is Fran Wing of FranMadeinOregon - our winner from Challenge #307!

You can also see how Fran was inspired by our photo as well as my talented team mates over on the Time Out Blog!  I do hope you can take some Time Out and come play cards with us this fortnight!

I took this opportunity to pull out these Waffle Flower Postage Collage dies and Waffle Flower Postage Collage Block Dies.  I had a hard time finding a European distributor for Waffle Flower but finally found a distributor in Germany (no English on the site but thankfully I know enough German to get by and Google translate helps).  You lucky USA people don't have that problem as our wonderful sponsor this challenge stocks most of the top brands - including Waffle Flower!

  Eventually I hope to buy some of the matching stamp sets to go with these dies but for now I "made do" with some wonderful images from an old WMS stamp sets (My Island and North Shore).  I also added some die-cut seagulls (Frantic Stamper) which I suspect may also be NBUS (found them when I was trawling through my nautical stash)!

To create the sunset backgrounds, I blended several Distress Inks on a large white background and used the Blocks die to selectively cut out the images.  then popped them back into the negative as a jig and stamped them with various images!   Then added the blocks to a Collage background.

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #85 - NBUS Postage Collage dies and Seagulls;

Traumfabrik Challenge #149 - Code 3 (Use at least 3 colours);

Shopping Our Stash SOS572 - Up, Up and Away (Things you would find in the sky);

Make My Monday Challenge #276 - Birds and or Eggs;

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes;

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Hope and Blooms

Time Out Challenge #311 has just gone live and it's another Pick 2 Challenge and as you can see I got a little carried away - 6 cards for this challenge!

The concept of a Pick 2 Challenge is simple - we give you 6 word prompts to choose from and you use at least 2 to inspire your creation!  To be clear, you can pick more than 2 if you like - all 6 if you really want a challenge but just make sure to pick at least 2!

The Word Prompts for this challenge are

Pastel, Earth, Rain, Hope, Tree, Bloom

You can interpret these words any way you like but please explain if it isn't obvious and please remember we only allow a total of 5 challenges - ours plus 4 others!  I hope you enjoy our challenge and that you can take a little Time Out and join us for some fun!  

Challenge #311 is generously being sponsored by STAMPlorations and Shery is offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design teams a $25 credit to the STAMPlorations store!  

The Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!  Speaking of guest designers, our guest designer this fortnight is Karen Walker our winner from Challenge #306!  Be sure to check out the Time Out Blog to see how how Karen and my talented team mates were inspired by these six words!

Shery very kindly sent me a set of her amazing Quickcards #3 - Spring Florals A2 Card Fronts!  These absolutely gorgeous watercolour designs are super thick (325gsm), super smooth and an absolute delight to work with!  

To start with, I stamped this lovey piece of text from an old WMS set (Fine Feathers) which included the word "Hope" onto the bottom right hand corner of one of the more pastel card fronts - there was a nice little blank space there that accommodated it perfectly.  Then I used the eclipse technique to cut the word "hope" (Winnie and Walter) from a floral section of the card - subtle but love the dimension of this!  Then I scattered a few purple butterflies and pearls around.

I couldn't stop there though!  Since I had the WMS Fine Feathers set out, I grabbed another sentiment from the set and stamped it onto a scrap of vellum.  I wrapped this around the card front and cut a pink feather (Memorybox Plumed Gypsy Feather), distressed it a little with Picked Raspberry DI and placed it under the sentiment.  I had a bottle of white enamel accents (that I hadn't touched for years) and after a good shake laid some white dots on the feather for some interest.  It still needed something more so added a few of these tiny butterflies (also distressed with Picked Raspberry DI using a finger dauber).

I thought this lovely NBUS butterfly (Gummiapan's 2025 Easter Advent Calendar) went rather well with the watercolour blooms and made up another 3 cards fairly quickly using the panels that were predominantly purple.  The butterflies were cut from a light purple card stock but I distressed them with Seedless Preserves and Chipped Sapphire DIs .  I winked them as well though it's hard to tell from the photos - they look so much lovelier in real life!  I cut just the body from some darker purple and laid it down the middle - these Gummiapan dies are designed to snip away easily.  I just love how well these turned out!

• I added 2 butterflies to the first purple panel and a "hugs" sentiment (Spellbinders Vivid Script) and tried some photo corners (Sizzix Bigz Movers and Shapers ATC).

• I added a "comfort" sentiment to the second with a single butterfly and some different (and NBUS) photo corners (Gummiapan).

• I stamped a birthday sentiment (WMS Big Day Today) on the 3rd. and added a single butterfly and a few smaller butterflies.  

For the 6th card, I stamped some text that included the word "BLOOM" (Poppystamps Colorful Life) onto another of the card panels and added a swallowtail butterfly (JustPaper Butterfly Mix by Justine Hovey) cut from blue card stock (this panel was more blue than purple).  I wanted to add "rain" drops to the panel but couldn't make them work on this card and ended up using these to line the body of the butterfly instead so they're really just clear pearls not rain drops - uhh!

So I've managed Pastel, Hope, and Bloom!  I hope you can take some Time Out and join us this fortnight.  You have until the April 29th to link up your entries ... can't wait to see which words you choose and how they inspire you!

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #85 - NBUS Gummiapan Butterfly and Gummiapan Photo Corners on Card 4;

Triple B April Challenge - Blooms and Butterflies on all cards;

The Neglected Stuff April Challenge - WMS Fine Feathers Stamp Set and Enamel Accents;

Ellibelle's Garden Party #14 - Anything in (or from) a Garden;

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and should be able to find you!

Kate

La Dolce Vita

A new challenge has just gone live at Time Out Challenges and we would like to see how you are inspired by Sweet Treats!

Challenge #310 is generously being sponsored by Lawn Fawn and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design teams a $25 credit to their store!  

The Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!  Speaking of guest designers, our guest designer this fortnight is the very talented Dawn of Dawn's World our winner from Challenge #305!   You can check out how Dawn and my talented team mates were inspired by their favourite card making techniques over on the Time Out Blog!

This Strawberry Charlotte die came in last year's Gummiapan Advent Calendar and being NBUS was my first thought for this challenge!  The Dolce Vite banner die (Spellbinders) was also a recent acquisition and as La Dolce Vite literally translates to The Sweet Life, it seemed the perfect sentiment.  Then it was just a matter of deciding out how to put a card together.  In the end I chose another NBUS die to frame the dessert (also from last year's Gummiapan Advent Calendar).

With a little snipping, I was able to build up layers to give the dessert some dimension.   I also shaped the lady fingers with a stylus and 'winked' them to give the appearance of a sugar coating but this wasn't picked up by the camera unfortunately.

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #85 - NBUS Charlotte die, frame and sentiment

The Paper Players PP779 - First Column (Die-cut, Circle, Sparkle);

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Jolly Jumping Elf

 Sparkles Christmas Challenge 183 has just gone live and Melanie has chosen Elves and Gnomes as our theme for April!

For this challenge I pulled out this jolly little elf (Charlie & Paulchen Wichtelreihe), which was a good thing as I had forgotten I'd bought this little box die (Charlie & Paulchen Kleine Geschenk Box) for him to jump out from. 

The elf was cut from white card stock and coloured with alcohol markers and his beard was also cut from white felt.  I coloured his little shoes black and added a little glossy accents so they'd shine

For his nose, I coloured it with a flesh coloured marker and coated it with glossy accents to make it bulbous.

Here's a closeup

I added a trimmed down wobble element behind his back to give the impression he really is jumping out of that box and also so he would stand clear of this large sentiment (Waltzing Mouse Stamps 'Tis the Season) - I'm having printer issues at the moment but I would have liked to say "Have your-elf a merry little Christmas"!

The rather splendid frame is from the 2023 Gummiapan Advent Calendar.

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges:

NBUS Challenge #85 - NBUS Cloud Frame and Box;

Die Traumfabrik - Sweet Little Things (Anything Small);

Inkspirational Challenge #364 - CAS, E is for Elf;

Peace on Earth Challenge #108 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Jingle Belles - Walking in a Whimsical Wonderland;

ABC Christmas Challenge - E is for Elf;

The Outlawz April Christmas Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes;

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate